Excerpt: “I Want My Son To Become A Better Writer” & Other Daydreams

“Many classical Christian schools hold themselves to absurdly low standards when it comes to writing instruction. A few graduates come back from their freshman year in college and report, ‘After writing my senior thesis, college writing work is easy,’ and the school congratulates itself on how well they’re doing. Twenty years ago, I took a freshman composition class at the University of Idaho where, in the second week, we sat in a circle and rolled a ball back and forth to learn one another’s names. Breezing through college writing classes proves nothing.”

-from a lecture I will deliver in Charleston next week at the CiRCE National Conference (Register to attend the virtual conference here)

In Desperate Need Of Definition

“The days are surely coming when the word ‘classical’ will be as ambiguous as the word ‘Republican,’ a term which now encompasses everyone from Never Trumpers like Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse to the QAnon Shaman who stormed the Capitol.”

-from “The Downside of Classical Christian Education’s Rising Popularity,” which I will deliver next week at the CiRCE National Conference in Charleston.

On Witch Hunts

The modern man uses the term “witch hunt” as a euphemism for injustice and hysteria because he thinks witches an absurd superstition. The modern man does not believe any “hunt” could ever turn up a witch.

For all their faults, the people of Salem gave trials to those accused of witchcraft. Those accused of the modern equivalent of witchcraft receive no such luxury.

Overlapping Aesthetics

Very few period pieces set in the 1980s are all that convincing because the average home in 1985 was largely stocked with goods and styles from the 1970s and late 1960s, although contemporary filmmakers typically stuff a “1985 home” with goods and styles that were fashionable in the year 1985.

Gibbs In Mojave

Tomorrow, we are waking at five to get on the road early. Driving from the Lemoore Naval Air Station through the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas, and hopefully making it to the Grand Canyon by early evening.

I made a playlist for the occasion. As usual, this one is marked collaborative, so feel free to add to it.

Every Time

Tom: We’ve made remarkable cultural progress over the last fifty years.

Harry: Really? What about rising suicide rates? And do you know how many Americans are on antidepressants?

Tom: We’ve probably always been this depressed. It just wasn’t reported or diagnosed before.

Every time.